Tears of a Shattered Heart
by Chris Talonflight
Summary: A young boy encounters a human heartless in Radiant Garden, and befriends it only to have her torn away from him. Years later, he finds her again, both on opposite sides of a conflict. Can their love overcome their haunted past? OCxOC, human x heartless
1. Prologue

Prologue : the Fall

Squall watched as a bloodied and battered Shan stumbled backwards, still somehow managing to put his body between him and the girl. Tifa's eyes had tears in them, as she suddenly backed up from her former student.

"I'm sorry, Shan… Squall, I can't do it!" she shook her head. "I can't kill him."

Squall sighed and looked at Cloud. Cloud looked at him in silence, before grumbling two words. "Not interested."

Barret pointed his gun arm at the pair standing on the edge of the cliff; It made a clicking noise, and Barret sighed. "I guess I ran out of bullets."

Squall sighed and drew his gunblade. "Fine then!" he looked at Shan. "I'm sorry, kid, but I don't have a choice. Your defending a heartless who has brought untold destruction to the worlds." He looked to the side, and Sora and Riku stepped up to flank him. "This is your last chance, Shan." He lifted his hand as an offering of peace. "She's a heartless. Come back to us. Come back to the light."

Shan merely spit out a wad of saliva and blood, and raised his fists back into his signature fighting pose. _Tifa taught that boy well_. Squall thought as he and the keyblade masters raised their weapons. He could hear Kairi quietly sobbing in the background as he started to walk towards the boy and girl…

…."I don't want to be alone again, Shan."

Celestia's voice floated through my ears like a sad melody, as she took that one final step backwards. Her arms outstretched towards me, she fell backwards, like an angel falling from heaven. Squall and the rest of the crowd in front of me gasped as she started to descend through the air, towards the sharp crags below. Kairi screamed, and Tifa averted her eyes. Barret swore softly.

Something inside me snapped, and regardless of all reason my legs pushed me forwards to her, my arms reaching, my fingers brushing hers and we both started to plummet to our oblivion.

That moment, seeing her before me, the two of us plunging down towards the sharp stones hundreds of feet below us, looking into her emerald green eyes that stared out at me from her beautiful pale-skinned face, framed by flowing dark hair, something happened. In that quantum moment before closure, that last juncture of space and time, one moment left, I knew one thing more surely then I knew anything else in my life.

They say your life flashes before your eyes when you are about to die.

It did.


	2. Chapter 1

Chris **: Welcome! If you are reading this, it means you ready the prologue and decided to keep going. Kudos to you! **

**Zidane: … *yawn* Chris, I need a snack,**

**Chris: HUSH Zidane, you arent up yet! Also, does anyone know the Age difference between Barret, Cloud, Tifa, Yuffie, Squall, and the rest? I don't, personally, so I had to guess in this chapter.**

**Zidane: Chris, stop talking, and get on with it.**

**Chris: *sigh* fine. I don't own anything about Kingdom Hearts, only my OC's. And Btw, Celestia was inspired by Raven The Blood Witch. *turns to Zidane* Happy now?**

**Zidane: FINALLY! *runs off to chase monsters with Bartz***

Chapter 1: Seven years ago

I ran forwards, laughing, giggling, and happy merely to be free of the confines of the small, stifling, everyday humdrum town. I raced along the edge of a daunting precipice, dirt flying beneath my heels as I ran forwards.

Somewhere in the back of my eleven year old mind, I knew that my friend Squall would be mad at me for running off without him, as would big sister Tifa. Cloud probably wouldn't care, though. But Merlin and Yen Sid would be mad at us, and likely ground us.  
>My friend Zidane ran behind me, keeping up with me only from the agility he gained from having a monkey's tail. He jumped from wall to wall as I bounded down the length of the canyon.<p>

"Beat you!" I yelled as I reached the wooden barricade that served as the border of our usual haunts. Zidane dropped from the sky to land in front of me, actually perched on the wooden barricade like a monkey, and made faces.

"No way! I totally beat you here!" Zidane complained. "I was ahead by at least half a step!"

"Nuh uh!" I shook my head. "You know I was ahead of you!" I grinned. "You're just mad because now you have to tell big sister Tifa you like her!"

"Hey, I do not have a crush on Tifa!" Zidane nearly yelled. "You're the one who spends all day with her, training in those stupid martial arts! YOU'RE the one that likes her!"

I laughed. "ME? Like TIFA? No way! She did a suplex on me during training the other day when Sensei wasn't looking! And besides, Squall's started teaching me what he knows about sword fighting!"

"I know you have a crush on SOMEONE, Shan!" Zidane giggled. "I'm going to guess every single one of them until you blush!"

"Yeah?" I giggled back. "Well, if you lose, you have to walk past the barrier!"

W Zidane puffed out his skinny chest. "You're just afraid to go in there yourself!"

I stood up, and took three steps past the barrier, and looked triumphantly at Zidane. Zidane, in respect, then walked three more steps past where I was.

"You scared yet, Zidane?" I taunted as I again walked several steps past him. He started chasing me again, and I ran forwards laughing. Within minutes we were farther into the dark depths then either of us had ever been before and the sun was dipping towards the horizon.

The shaded areas of Radiant Garden were completely different from the sunlit village we grew up in with our older friends, Squall, Yuffie, Cloud and Tifa. Another kid named Barret was the town bully, and the town sweetheart, whom Squall was always chasing around, was named Aerith. The town was run by a man named Merlin, in his mid-fifties, a pleasant, laid-back old fellow. He was aided by another, younger man, named Ansem.

But I was eleven, as was Yuffie, and Zidane ten; Squall and Cloud had reached semi-maturity by achieving the age of fifteen, while Tifa lagged behind at fourteen, and Aerith was thirteen. There was another boy named Barret, but I never talked to him; he was a bit too fond of picking fights with Zidane, and he was almost sixteen.

Now, Zidane and I were running laughingly through a large canyon, with high blue stone walls on both side, and only a spreading darkness ahead and behind us.

I can't say exactly when I lost Zidane. One moment he was behind me as we raced, the next moment as I looked over my shoulder he was gone. At first I thought he was hiding from me as a joke, and looked around for my friend. But Zidane was nowhere to be seen. So I started walking back the way I had come, hoping to encounter my friend sitting on the ground, merely exhausted by our rapid pace. After a while, however, I couldn't recognize the path.

It became soon quite clear that I was alone, in the Dark Depths of Radiant Garden. I stood there morosely, close to tears. I didn't know my way back. Zidane was gone, likely having turned back and gotten home safely. There were Heartless in the Depths, I had heard, along with other, dangerous things.

I put my hands up to cover my face, stopping the tears from flowing. You might think I was weak, crying all alone in the dark when in reality the town was not really that far away. However, I was only eleven years old, and I had heard countless stories about what happened in the dark depths at night. Dangerous things, ghosts, monsters, and even crazy people-

-I jumped up as I heard a loud rustling to my right. The sun was set now, and it was dark, with only sky glow to the west where the sun sat just below the horizon. I stared at the bushes, imagining red glowing eyes, curving claws, giant fangs-

I yelled and scurried back as something burst from the bushes. My sneakers snagged on something behind me, probably a tree branch, and I fell, catching myself on my hands. I hissed in pain, and looked at the newly acquired scrapes. Then I looked at the bushes in fear. _its coming its coming its coming help me! _My eleven year old mind tried to kick into badass gear, but my eleven year old body was terrified. I tried to remember all my moves from fighting class with Tifa, but I was just to scared-

A small face emerged from the bushes, staring at me with slightly glowing yellow eyes. I made out flowing brown hair and a face with a pointed chin, almost elfin. she had long eyelashes, and her skin was a beautiful, pale color. She looked at me quizzically, before she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue at me.

I actually laughed at the audacity of the gesture. Here I was alone in the dark depths; the last thing I expected was a beautiful girl to suddenly appear from nowhere… and make faces at me.

"What are you?" the girl asked. I found that funny. Not _what's your name_, not _ who are you_, she asked _what are you_. Perhaps that was what made me answer; her ete lack of guile and her innocence.

"I'm a human. My name is Shan." I peered up at her. "what's your name?"

The girl looked up in thought. Then she spoke, slowly, uncertain. "I… im not sure…"

My eyes got round. "You don't know your own name?"

The girl stared at me for a moment, then her eyes started to get teary. "I don't know. I can't remember… its been a long time since I've…" she sniffed, and I saw a tear roll down her cheek. I instantly felt terrible, and I went over to her and put my arm around her shoulders.

It should have been strange. I should have been freaked out. Hell, I should have been terrified. But for some reason, all my fears were washed away in that moment. I knew, instantly, that this was a person in need of a friend. And I guessed I could do that.

"Well!" I said suddenly, trying to cheer her up. "If you don't have a name… I'll name you!"

"All…" she sniffed. "All right." She looked at me expectantly. I winced. I had expected her to say no; I knew that Yuffie or Tifa would have said no if I offered them another name. _Maybe this girl is just weird like that_. I guessed. Now I actually had to name her…

"hmm…." I looked at her. Her eyes were totally innocent, and a beautiful, almost glowing shade of yellow. A pair of angel's eyes, at least, the way that the angel's in Merlin's pictures looked like.

"Celestia." I decided. It reminded me of angels, while not sounding weird, like Cloud (_I mean, seriously, who names their kid after a cloud_? I thought) or sounding like a boy's name like Rikku.

The girl, Celestia, as she was now called, smiled at me. "Thank you." She stood, and I realized she was almost as tall as me. She was probably around my age.

"Do you like exploring?" I asked her, all my fears forgotten. Somehow, being with her made all the frightful things about the Dark Depths seem far away.

She looked at me. "I… I don't know. I've never left this area before. I usually stay in this area with my…' she hesitated. "…my friends." She finished.

"Friends?" I asked. "You mean there are more of you?" _if people live down here, why are we forbidden to go here?_ I wondered. I mean, the girl seemed to be all right, and I hadn't even encountered any heartless.

Celestia nodded, a smile suddenly going onto her face. She held out her hand, pointing to something behind me. "This one here I named Trufflehunter!"

I turned, expecting to see another human, but instead…

-a long slim body, sharp joints, no mouth, yellow eyes, long jagged antennae, and three fingered hands-

_Neoshadow_.

I scrambled back, expecting sharp claws to shred my skin and tear into my body. Neoshadows weren't strong, but they were fast and sharp. They could tear a person with quick slashes. I looked at it, expecting to be attacked at any moment.

But the Neoshadow totally ignored me, walking up to Celestia. It nuzzled her, and my new friend laid a hand on it, caressing it gently. "This is Trufflehunter," she smiled at me. "He's my friend.

I stared at her. A heartless, her friend? My friends and teachers all said that heartless were evil and were only interested in stealing hearts. But Celestia and this Neoshadow were cuddling together like I cuddled with my teddy bear back in my room that I shared with Squall.

Apparently, not all I had learned was true.

I approached her cautiously, and she took my hand, and okayed it on the Neoshadows head. He sniffed it for a moment, and then nuzzled it. The texture of it's head was strange; pureblood heartless were supposed to be made of darkness, but apparently darkness had the texture of fur and scales.

I slowly became aware of other heartless appearing from around us. Shadows, Wyvern, Soldiers, and others. Celestia smiled at them all. "This one here is named Nudge," she pointed to a Shadow. "And this one is named Bobby." She pointed at a Soldier. "and this is Mr Wings!" she rested a hand on a Wyvern. **(for this part, I held my little seven year old sister pictures of the heartless and had her name them)**

I cocked my head to the side. "Those names are really strange." Celestia looked at me for a moment, before shrugging.

"They like them" was all she said in response. I smiled.

It was a few moments of awkwardness before I started to get comfortable. I had been raised to think that Heartless were evil, but… these seemed totally harmless. In fact, some were downright cute, like Nudge the Shadow Heartless. I eventually sat with them on the ground, with her "friends" all around us.

Celestia and I didn't talk much. As new friends, we were doing what some just naturally did: we enjoyed each other's company silently, each engrossed in our own thoughts. After a while, I looked at the sky, and realized how dark it was. I stood quickly.

"I've gotta go home." I said apologetically. Celestia looked up me, her face sad.

"Will you come back?" she asked me.

I looked at her, at her friends. She sat there amid the heartless, and even in my eleven year old mind, I knew that I should say no. there were just too many heartless, and-

"Yes." I heard myself say, almost automatically. "But I really have to get home quickly. It's almost dinnertime, and I have to find my way back, and its really ark so it will probably take a long time…" I let myself trail off. I was LOST.

Celestia, however, merely smiled, and gestured at Mr. Wings, the Wyvern. He lumbered to his feet, and slid himself between my legs so I straddled him. Then with one strong flap, he leapt into the air, my astride him, holding on for dear life. His wings pumped as we soared high into the air.

I think it was then that I started to love flying. Astride a Wyvern Heartless, I fell in love with the feeling of speed and heights and simple majesty of the night sky.

Mr. Wings angled downwards from our considerable height, and began a descent. I hung onto his neck, orange fur tickling me. The feeling of air rushing past me made my mind tingle with excitement.

And then, all too soon we were on the ground, Mr. Wings sliding out from beneath me, and the Wyvern heartless licking my cheek before launching himself back into the air, on route back to the dark depths, back to Celestia…. My new friend.

I took a few steps forwards, and I heard voices. I realized I was now inside the town itself, merely inches away from the classroom, where our teacher was concluding a lecture. I peeked into the window of the log house schoolroom, which was probably the only building without modern building materials. Squall was seated nearest the door, nodding off, his sword wrapped in fabric and leaning on the wall. Cloud was slowly sliding out of his chair, eye on the clock, watching the few seconds remaining until the dinner bell rang. Barret was alone in the corner, playing a handheld game. Rikku was behind Barret, attempting to pitch little paper balls down the neck of Barrett's shirt. Sephiroth sat away from the rest of the class, ignoring everyone, including the teacher, staring out another window with a creepy expression on his face. Next to her sat Aerith, sketching in her notebook. In front of her was Tifa, who was probably the only one actually listening to the teacher speaking on the ways to identify a heartless. If only he knew that his worst student had just hitched a ride on a wyvern! ! !

"… to conclude my lecture, all heartless have one feature in common, which you can always use to identify a heartless. They all have sharply glowing yellow eyes, which are used to detect darkness as well as for normal eyesight." He wrote another thing on the board.

Tifa raised her hand. "Sir? But what if a heartless looks human? Wouldn't it be hard for us to identify it? After all, some humans have yellow eyes as well."

The teacher shook his head. "a humanoid heartless is extremely rare, and extremely powerful. Any human heartless is to be treated with caution and quick action. To answer your question, we would identify them by their actions. Beings with power such as a humanoid heartless wouldn't be able to resist the temptation of such enormous power, and would end up using it for petty, selfish reasons, and are almost always easily seen." He looked at the clock. "class is dismissed…" his ye fell on Barret, still holding his game. ".. Except for young master Barret. We need to have a talk about proper behavior in class, I believe."

"Aww man!" Barret exclaimed, as the rest of the class filed back out of the classroom. I waited in the shadows, allowing the rest of the class to walk out. Sephiroth turned slightly as he left, making me think that the older boy had sensed me. It wouldn't surprise me; he had a reputation for being extremely strong and powerful among the older students. Even Barret gave him a berth.

Something bumped into me from behind. I jumped, before turning around. A shock of red hair and a pair of blue eyes looked up at me. I sighed; it was only Kairi. A few years younger then me, the youngest of our little group, we had a bond of older brother and younger sister, almost. When I needed to talk to someone, I usually went to her. Of course, then I had to dodge her grandma, too.

"Shan!' she burbled happily, before looking at me suspiciously. "You weren't cutting class again, were you?" she asked me.

I smiled and ruffled her hair. "Yeah, I was. But I made a new friend, and she's amazing."

"Wow!" she laughed. "Sounds like you really like her!"

"She's really cool." I said. I swung her up so she sat on my shoulders. "Come on, lets go to the cafeteria and get dinner. Then I'll take you home."

"Yay!" she laughed.

As I walked towards the cafeteria, I sighed. Today had been strange but… I wanted to go back and see her. She was a good friend.

I wanted to see her again.

And I would.

**A few things to keep in mind about this is that since I have inserted an OC the back-story of the characters will not exactly be the same as in the games. If you are a Final Fantasy lover and you are reading this, you will be surprised to notice that in this fic Squall is an orphan and shares a room with the OC, Shan. All of the Final Fantasy characters that will play a role in this story live together on Hollow Bastion, or rather, Radiant Garden (since it's before, a little during, and mostly after the events of Birth By Sleep and the rest of the KH up to KH2. It is centered on the life of Shan Ursuul, my OC. I hope you like the story, and don't forget to click that Review Button!**


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